Of Doves and cranes
by Aarnael
Summary: this is my penance this is my crime forgive me my love but this time I set you free Oneshot depending on reviews. Also on Percy Jackson and the Olympians under Of Doves and Donkeys


The council of Olympians stared in shock at the man kneeling before them. He was massive, even squeezed down to his smallest size he still dwarfed the confounded Zeus, he gawked at what the man just said.

"You what?!" Zeus thundered, lighting flashing in the heavens as if to punctuate his words. If the man was frightened by this he didn't show it. Not a single one of his massive cords of muscle so much as twitched beneath his dark, scar ridden skin. His dark hair hung from his misshapen head like curtains, his blue eyes gazing out from beneath them. Their blue depths full of sorrow and pain, but glazed over with determination.

Hera sat next to her husband on her gilded throne, unbelieving of what she was hearing as she heard her son speak.

"I wish to right my mistakes. In exchange for Harmonia's resurrection I shall renounce my divinity and leave Olympus." Spoke the kneeling god, his voice strong and free from the pain his current position brought his misshapen limbs. " Eternity for Eternity as it where." The god spoke from charred lips and blackened tongue but his voice was soft, gently flowing from his tongue and into their ears despite his monstrous appearance. Such a bargain was unheard of, to give up one's own immortality for another was such a ludicrous notion that it had never passed as a thought in the perfect minds of the gods. Poseidon and Apollo both had tasted mortality and where not eager for a repeat performance. None of them could not comprehend why someone would even consider such a thing, save a select few. Demeter, Dionysus, and Hades knew why. They themselves could sympathize with the gesture. Demeter and Hades both would do anything for Persephone, and Dionysus, though a god, was once a mortal man whom it pained to watch a child die. He had been there when the kneeling god known as Hephaestus learned of the child's fate.

Zeus stood from his throne and strode up to the kneeling god, who even know, hunched over and on his knees as he was, Zeus barely came up to the lumbering giants hair covered shoulders. Zeus did not fear him, for it was not in Hephaestus' nature to harm unless severely provoked. If it did come to confrontation Zeus was sure he would win, if only just. Hephaestus knew the strengths and weaknesses of the weapons and tools of the gods, he had built them after all. Every thunderbolt, trident, and blade was forged with his massive hands and, though he would never admit it, Zeus respected the god before him.

"You're serious aren't you." It was a statement more than a question but the giant nodded solemnly and the two stared at each other in silence.

"Grant his request brother, I will honor it." Spoke the eldest of the brothers, Hades, from his shadowed throne. The god of the dead wasn't usually allowed in Olympus, but the blacksmith had insisted on his presence. Zeus looked towards his elder brother and, with a nod, accepted his oath.

"Before I grant you this request I must ask, What will you do with your new found mortality?" He asked his step-son.

"I shall seek peace." Was the reply. Hera, up on her throne, had no idea why, but her child's words struck a cord within her and her latent maternal instincts decided to rear their ugly head.

"I object!" She shouted, hurling herself to her feet."He is needed here, on Olympus. Dear husband, Who shall furnish your thunderbolts or outfit Artemis' hunters. Eros must have a ready supply of arrows or his duties will remain unfulfilled." She argued, hiding her worries behind cold logic. Zeus cocked an eyebrow at his wife.

"I had no idea you where so concerned about the romance of mortals." The queen of the gods scoffed at his words.

"I am the patron of marriage, is love not crucial to that sacred institution." She countered.

"Is harmony not also crucial to any healthy relationship?" Chimed in Aphrodite from her place beside her husbands throne. She was a blonde today, with glittering green eyes that shined with her excitement. She could be free of her miserable, misshapen, and ugly husband and reunited with her precious daughter in one fell swoop, courtesy of pitiful little Hephaestus. She could almost kiss him right on his cracked lips, almost. "I dare say I'm quite the authority on this subject lady Hera." She smiled.

"Be silent harlot, you have done enough to my son!" Hera ordered as she glared at the goddess of love, who stared back with one of her own.

"At least I never threw him down a mountain!" Aphrodite retorted, standing from her throne.

"Enough!" Zeus bellowed as he slammed a thunderbolt down between the advancing goddesses, whose gazed swiveled to him once the light dispersed."The Elder Cyclops and the Hekatonkheires will reassume the mantle of Hephaestus, he learned under them and are eager for something to do anyway." He turned back to the kneeling god."What shall become of your wife during this time?"

Aphrodite froze, she knew it was to good to be true. Though it was in name only, he was still her husband and therefor controlled her fate. It was well within his right to take her with him as he lived out his few remaining years on earth and the spiteful little ogre might do just that. Aphrodite was immortal, and could afford to await his imminent demise but she had no desire to live amongst the filth below. Ares was only allowed to leave Olympus during war time and was only allowed to stay within the region where the fighting was located, and though Aphrodite could very well start one she wasn't as foolish to do so. Looking towards her paramour with frightened eyes she saw him look frightened as well and it warmed her heart. If she had paid attention to him from the start she would have seen his panic begin the moment Hephaestus launched his petition.

Ares had no desire to see the fall of Hephaestus. Who would raise his children? Certainly not Ares, he had better things to do then care for his little bastards. Eris, Enyo, and his other consorts knew the deal, but Aphrodite figured herself in love with him and vice versa.

"I will not burden her any longer, she may stay at Olympus." replied Hephaestus to the great relief of his wife, but the horror of her lover.

Why is he not happy? Aphrodite wondered, having noticed the paleness of Ares' skin and the frightened look about him when she turned to smile at him. He should be happy.

Ares was mortified, he needed to come up with a plan, and fast if he wanted his freedom. He opened his mouth to speak when a young winged man threw open the doors of Olympus and dashed towards Hephaestus.

"Father no!" Shouted Eros as he skidded to a stop next to the giant. Ares was to overcome by relief to care about the boys choice of address for the blacksmith, let him be their father. One more reason for him to stay, surely Eros would dissuade him of his folly.

"Eros come here!"

"No! I wont let y-" He began but was cut of by a gentle, albeit massive, calloused hand on his slender shoulder. Looking up he saw the simple smile, small though it was, adorning his misshapen fathers face as he gazed at Eros with kind eyes.

"listen to your mother son." His voice was gentle, not commanding, soft as the velvet he once swaddled Eros in. Looking into the scarred visage of his weary father Eros could find no ounce of fight inside him to deny his wishes.

"Yes father." Eros muttered meekly, bitter sorrow warring with happiness at the prideful smile Hephaestus granted the boy...

Or not. Ares could feel the weight of father hood pressing down on him like the putrid corpses of a thousand slaughtered men. He knew he should've pulled out.

"He is not your father!" Aphrodite couldn't stand to hear her beautiful boy call that...that thing anything more then 'worthless monster'. Ares' willed the woman to such her mouth. Silly little harlot was going to ruin everything!

"He is the closest I've ever had! Hephaestus deserves to be a father far more than Ares." Eros stood his ground against his furious mother. He may not be able to defy Hephaestus but through him he found the strength to do so for his mother.

"Ridiculous Ares is a wonderful father! Why just the other day he-" Aphrodite cut off her own defense as she clutched at her memories, desperate to find a shred of evidence to Ares' supposed patriarchal fortitude. Seizing his chance Ares leapt from his chair.

"Hold thy tongue woman! That child is no son of mine!" He shouted, causing Aphrodite to turn incredulously to him, pain in her eyes. Ares didn't care, his freedom was far more important that the feelings of some woman, Aphrodite or not. He'd make it up to her later if he felt the itch, she was easy like that. Some flowers, a few empty words would have her rolling beneath him yet again.

"B-but my l-love-" Aphrodite couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ares, her _handsome_ Ares who vowed to love her always was denouncing their son."I swear to you he is yours." She was shaking now, tears filling her eyes as Ares stormed towards her from his throne.

"I said be quiet! Who knows whom sired that bastard but it was not me, perhaps Apollo or maybe Dionysus or who ever else you have invited into your open legs." He declared as he crossed the room."Perhaps the boys right and he was born from the cripple, weak begets weak after all!"

"He is no such thing! I have not defiled myself with that monstrosity, Eros belongs to-" She recoiled when Ares swung his fist at her, trying in vain to escape the war gods wrath.

"I told you to be silent you whore." A meaty slap echoed through the chamber but Aphrodite felt no pain. Peaking between her arms she gasped in surprise. Just before the fist of war crashed into her a large hand had coiled itself around its girth to stop it dead in its tracks.

"What ever else she mite be she is still my wife and the mother of _my_ children." Hephaestus glowered dangerously at the smaller god as he slowly began to crush his hand." And _my_ son, Eros..." Aphrodite's eyes flicked over to Eros who was kneeling against the marble with tears in his eyes."...and I do not appreciate your words nor your attempt to lay your hands upon her!" And with barely a twitch of Hephaestus' massive biceps Ares, who had been pounding against the fire gods arm in an effort to free himself, was sent careening into his throne, which shattered into dust on impact." A sentiment I'm sure _my_ daughter holds as well." He said in closing before turning his attention to the shivering goddess.

Aphrodite found herself watching her husband in awe as his cerulean eyes focused in on her. She had always had the assumption that Hephaestus was a coward, and had certainly never expected him to do such a thing as defend her. Not with their history.

"Are you alright?" He rumbled but Aphrodite could only manage a choked sob as Eros rocketed into her with a fierce hug

"Mother!" Eros cried as he embraced his mother, who watched Hephaestus walk towards the center of the room where both Zeus and Hades awaited him. With a nod to the both of them He knelt at the god kings feet.

"Do it." Zeus commanded the king of the dead, who placed his darkly glowing hand upon the weathered crown of Hephaestus, who glowed in response as he began to shrink until he was the size of a mortal man and what little his godly essence could do for his appearance faded away, leaving him far more hideous than before. Removing his hand from the now mortal Hephaestus, Hades pulled away a brightly glowing orb of energy and nodded to Zeus before melting into the shadows.

"It is done Hephaestus, may your travels do you well." And with that the council was dismissed, the now eleven gods vanished one by one until only a handful remained. Eros tried to chase after the leaving Hephaestus but his mother had him in a death grip as Ares was already mending their relationship, he had his heart set on fucking Aphrodite in the cripple's bed one last time just to spite him.

Hera watched her youngest son limp away, her heart burdened by hidden sorrow as he vanished from her sight. Her vigil was not a lonesome one as her gaze was mirrored by Athena and Dionysus. Both worried for their friend but for entirely different reasons.

***]a couple weeks later[***

It had been days since anyone had seen or heard from the former god, which was strange since Helios saw everything beneath the sun. Hermes searched the earth as he flittered about in his duties and Hades was silent on the matter. The god of the dead had appeared before the court with a small girl in tow. Harmonia had regressed to her youth in order to escape the memories of her past, he explained before he passed the girl to her mother with a blank look as the tearful mother clutched at her babe, who returned the embrace. After a moment Harmonia began to look around the room, searching for something.

"Where's daddy?" the small, bright eyed girl twisted around in the hollow between her mother's arms in her efforts to spot her father. Aphrodite smiled at her glorious daughter.

"Ares isn't here at the moment but-" She was stopped by the quizzical face of her child.

"Who?" Harmonia cocked her head in a way eerily similar to Aphrodite's absent husband. Shaking off the specter of Hephaestus with a giggle the goddess of love reproached her child.

"Your father silly! Ares the god of war!" Aphrodite stated proudly, despite Ares' treatment of her the day prior, only to be surprised when the small girl banged her tiny fist against her mothers perky bounty. " He's not daddy! Daddy's big and strong not a big meanie like that poopie head." Harmonia struggled free of her bonds and began running towards a vacant throne. "Daddy! Daddy where are you?!"

The little girl was mortified when she learned that Hephaestus was gone. Her teary demands for her 'daddy' forced the king of the gods, who had always had a soft spot for this particular granddaughter, to evoke the might of Olympus to search for the fallen god only to come up empty. They searched high and low for the blacksmith but still could not find him and the child wailed and pleaded to see him it wasn't until Eros appeared and spirited the girl away that the gods so that they may find some semblance of peace. Quite ironic considering what the little girl represented.

It had been weeks since the girls resurrection and the resulting frantic man hunt and Aphrodite finally stumbled into what was once the home of her and her 'husband' and she had spent her time well. Hopping from lover to lover like a rabbit, coincidentally one of her sacred animals. Apollo, Poseidon, Zeus, and a few minor gods and mortals didn't know what had hit 'em until they were already left out to dry. The only gods she hadn't lain with were Ares and Dionysus, and not from lack of trying on the part of the latter. The god of wine and debauchery had, to her utter surprise, refused her as she had done so in turn to Ares. It had all been in some vain attempt to erase her husbands last words and actions from her mind. He had firmly stated that her children, at least in the case of Eros and Harmonia, were his. Claiming the mantle of father even as she had pulled it away from him and, in the same turn, he had defended her from the wrath of Ares. His gentle blue eyes looking down at her with love and sorrow all at once just would not fade from her mind no matter who she fucked nor what she drank in whatever quantity she could find.

It was through this fog of wine and sex that Aphrodite found herself standing before what once could have been a happy home, had been before all her lies and hatred turned it into a festering pit of vipers. She had no idea why, but as she gazed upon the open veranda that lay before the glorious expanse of wood and stone she could almost sea a young Eros sitting before Hephaestus on the porch as he crafted the boy his first bow, a smile on the giants face as his dexterous hands fluttered over the wood as he crafted a gift for _his_ son as ghostly laughter whispered past her ears, she blamed it on the wine.

The apparition faded as she placed one heeled foot upon the first step of the marble staircase carved with scenes of the family, love, and laughter its crafter had dreamed of, a dream that was just that, a dream. Her long, slender legs carried her up the stairs with a seductive swing to her hips that was second nature to the goddess of carnality. The phantom images played as she opened the great gold doors wrought in the image of her and Hephaestus smiling happily down at two small children playing at their feet. She saw her husband telling her that the man in the door represented the man he was supposed to be had Hera and Zeus not tossed him down the mountain and she had always found it annoying that he had just assumed she would be smiling like an idiot if it had been so, happily married to the handsome version of the blacksmith.

Going through the doors she entered a main hall to see the vision of her hulking husband chasing around a naked toddler version of Eros up and around the hall, past pillars and flower beds with his metal leg creaking in protest placed over the sight of the cold and vacant hallway filled with dead flowers. The event was among the many she had seen as Hephaestus tried his damndest to be a good father. looking towards the second story stair way she spotted the specter of his massive girth hunched over a pouting little girl as his sausage sized fingers wrestled her hair into two messy little pig tails with a panicked look on his face.

 _"Why can't mommy do it?"_ Said the vision of Harmonia as Hephaestus tried, and failed, to do her hair. A vapor like version of Aphrodite came to view, dressed in a sinfully tight negligee.

" _mommy needs to go tend to the wishes of her worshipers._ " the specter bent over and kissed her daughter on the head, but the girl wasn't buying it.

" _yeah right, your going to see uncle Ares aren't you."_ Smart girl, just like her mother.

" _Don't speak to your mother that way."_ Admonished the gentle giant as the vision faded to leave an empty stairway which the love goddess climbed, each step bringing back memories of the man who raised her children. Teaching Eros how to fly to the best of his ability, dancing with Harmonia when the muses played for her even though pain blasted him like lightning with each step and twirl as a goofy grin spread across his jagged face, Harmonia putting his hair into ridiculous pigtails after having him squeeze into a dress while Eros painted his nails with little hearts as his wings carried streamers which changed as she neared the great windows at the landing into Hephaestus clutching a weeping Eros as the child bleed from Ares' beating. It must have been the wine, because Aphrodite found herself wiping away little tear drops from her eyes. It certainly wasn't from the memories, she must have gotten a foul batch.

Aphrodite made her way down the hallway that connected the foyer to the master bedroom and found herself stopping at the open doorway to the nursery. A room her husband had built with such hope and longing, pouring all his mastery into the room. Carven oak furniture that grew with the occupants of the room with living murals on the walls that constantly shifted from scene to scene depending on the desires of the occupants. In her minds eye she saw herself, swollen with child, lounging in a golden rocking chair as Hephaestus read book after book to her belly with a soft smile on his face and a gleam in his eye as his voice, a deceptive octave contrary to his appearance, floated through he air and carried the goddess to a gentle sleep.

Shaking away the thoughts she turned away from the memories and renewed her path to the bedroom, unaware of the scarlet hands on the cribs and all along the walls as she remembered the day her husband carried her down this very hall after the houses completion, and all the times Ares had done the same among the others she had taken to bed, Hephaestus had been so sweet and attentive as he gently placed her upon the cloud like softness of the mountainous bed that now that he was gone Aphrodite could only curse the wine even more, perhaps she developed an allergy somewhere.

With a delicate hand she pushed aside the heavy door emblazoned with her image, the ghost of lovers past her only company as she entered the dark chamber. The smell hit her first, the heady scent of copper hung in the air and stuck to her tongue and Aphrodite tried to remember the last time her and Ares had indulged that dark little urge of his, but the smothering odor dispersed her already addled mind and so she felt along the walls until she found the heavy silken curtains that kept out the moonlight. Thrusting them open to allow the glow of Artemis, Aphrodite pulled the stain glass open and soaked in the warm summer air. Her threesome with Notus and Aeolus was on her mind as she turned to look at the room, but as soon the phantoms soon fled as her eyes fell upon the inner sanctum of the mockery of a marriage bed. The cold chill of horror chased the warming wine from her veins as the image seared into her mind. With the frozen breath in her lungs she read with wide eyes the crimson words upon the wall...

 _A thousand years of love_

 _a thousand years of pain_

 _a thousand years of memories_

 _a thousand times to try again_

 _a thousand thousand times I have tried_

 _to have your heart mirror mine_

 _and a thousand thousand times I have failed_

 _this is my penance_

 _this is my crime_

 _forgive me my love but this time I_

 _set you free_

...written in the blood of the man slumped against the very same wall. His blue eyes staring directly at her in the unblinking gaze of death as the moon light fell upon his face...

The twin wails of Aphrodite and Artemis echoes through the night as the search for Hephaestus draws to a close.


End file.
